


Days Of Inspiration

by dancinginthecenteroftheworld



Series: The Nudist Verse [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22685746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancinginthecenteroftheworld/pseuds/dancinginthecenteroftheworld
Summary: Myrcella doesn't remember exactly when she learned to take things apart to see how they work, but she likes it. Her uncles .... well, that depends.
Series: The Nudist Verse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581670
Comments: 26
Kudos: 162





	Days Of Inspiration

Myrcella can't remember which nanny started talking to her about how things work. She doesn't think it was Jeyne, maybe Elayne? Or Irri? It doesn't really matter, though, because Myrcella kept being interested long after that nanny had been replaced with another. 

Anyway, whichever nanny it was liked to make things and take things apart and she taught Myrcella about it. The nanny said it's important to try to fix things instead of throwing them away, which made Myrcella's mother laugh out loud when Myrcella told her what she'd learned. And Myrcella had found books at the school library about girls who invent things or make things and devoured them.

It makes her think of _A Wrinkle In Time_ , when she takes something apart, like she's seeing things others don't. Except it's real, it's something she can touch. When the nanny (Myrcella really wishes she could remember which one it was) was there, she and Myrcella would work on things together, learning how all the tiny pieces inside something fit together.

Luckily for Myrcella, her father never really paid attention to the workshop he had set up as a 'man cave' and she found it really easy to liberate some tools and store them in her room. And the first few things she took apart didn't exactly go back together very well, but it turns out her parents never paid much attention to most of the things they owned. New items simply appeared and nobody ever said a thing to Myrcella.

Myrcella hasn't actually worked out how to fix things yet, but she's gotten pretty good at taking them apart and putting them back together so they work as well as they did before.

It’s so soothing, to do it. Myrcella can take everything out step by step, lay them in neat lines, and put them back together into the parts where they belong. Everything has a spot where it’s supposed to be, and everything has a job. And Myrcella gets a glimpse into a secret world, because most people just look at stuff and take it for granted, but Myrcella gets to see what’s on the inside and make it go. 

She doesn't even think about it when she wakes up in the middle of the night and can't sleep or breathe well and wanders to the kitchen to take apart Uncle Jaime's coffee maker. It's a lot fancier than her parents coffee maker and there's way more interesting parts to look at.

Except Myrcella falls asleep at the table partway through, and wakes up to Uncle Jaime making a really painful-sounding noise as he rubs his eyes and looks at the counter and the pieces of machine spread out on the table.

Myrcella doesn't really see what the big deal is, because he can just have coffee delivered and she swears she'll put it back together. And it won't take too long. If she skips school, she can have it done by afternoon. But Uncle Jaime makes her go get ready for school anyway and takes her and Tommen like usual, even though he keeps sighing and rubbing his forehead. 

Myrcella pretty much forgets about it until she gets home and goes to get a snack — Uncle Jaime has pretty good snacks, they're way better than Uncle Stannis’s, but not as good as Uncle Tyrion’s — and instead of a new coffee maker, she finds all the parts of the old one still on the table where she left them.

Then Uncle Jaime asks Myrcella to stay in the kitchen and talk with him while Tommen goes off to color and eat his string cheese, and that's when it occurs to Myrcella she might be in trouble. Uncle Jaime definitely doesn't look happy, but he also doesn't yell like her parents do when they're upset. Did. Whichever. 

But they're in the kitchen, which pretty much never happens. Uncle Jaime spends almost all his time in the living room, even though the apartment is plenty big. Myrcella thinks it has something to do with the really tall lady across the street. Uncle Jaime sometimes stops working and just stares out the window with this weird, soft look on his face that Myrcella doesn't understand. And on the weekends, when the office is empty, Uncle Jaime spends a lot more time in the rest of the apartment. 

Uncle Jaime actually has Myrcella put the coffee maker back together and then tests it to make sure it works. He looks surprised when it does, which honestly makes Myrcella feel a little offended. Then he tells Myrcella she can take things apart but she can't touch the coffee maker or his work computer. Which seems fair, and also Uncle Jaime didn't specify _all_ coffee makers or computers, just his.

Uncle Tyrion doesn't notice at all, even when Myrcella takes one of his laptops for a week to examine all the tiny components. 

Uncle Stannis doesn't give her a chance to get into anything, because Uncle Jaime must have told him about the coffee maker. But he gives Myrcella a bunch of books on how things work. Myrcella gets sad when Uncle Stannis says she can't touch any of his stuff, but then the next day he shows up with a bunch of old appliances and tells Myrcella they're hers. He even looks up YouTube videos and starts helping Myrcella actually fix things, which is really cool, even if he says she's too young to use a soldering iron. She's totally not, Myrcella has used all sorts of her dad's tools before, like the big saw, but Uncle Stannis gets a weird twitch in his eye when Myrcella tells him that, so she stops.

Myrcella even gets a broken toaster to toast again! Well, Uncle Stannis and Shireen help. Shireen is allowed to use the soldering iron. Anyway, Uncle Stannis already has a toaster, so he suggests they donate it to a store that helps people who don't have a lot of money. The lady at the store smiles at Myrcella when she says she fixed it and it's nice, so Myrcella thinks maybe she can fix some of the other stuff too. 

Uncle Renly and Uncle Loras are the funniest though. 

Uncle Loras tells her to take apart the grandfather clock in the hallway, the really loud one that always wakes Myrcella up when she's there, and then he steals a piece. He makes her promise not to tell Uncle Renly but Myrcella thinks Uncle Renly knows.

Then Uncle Renly encourages her to take apart the microwave, the one that he always scowls at and calls ugly, and Myrcella is pretty sure he takes a part too, because it doesn't work right and she _knows_ she didn't do anything wrong. But Uncle Loras and Uncle Renly get a new microwave that's all sleek and shiny and makes Uncle Renly smile and Uncle Loras sigh. 

Myrcella hauls the old one to Uncle Stannis and he helps her find the part they need and she fixes it and gives it to the same store as the toaster. 

Myrcella hears Uncle Loras on the phone one day, talking to someone and saying he doesn't know why the clock isn't working, but he doesn't want to hurt Myrcella's feelings after she's been through so much. Myrcella thinks she should be insulted, because it really isn't her fault, but Uncle Loras ruffles her hair and says he'll make her a dress like Anna wears in _Frozen_ so she forgets about it.

Myrcella still likes being at Uncle Jaime's the best, though. Uncle Stannis teaches her things, but Uncle Jaime just sits and watches her sometimes and listens to her talk about what she's doing. Myrcella is sure he already knows it, but he doesn't stop and correct her like Uncle Stannis. He just listens and sometimes asks questions and it's nice. Sometimes Tommen comes and colors while Myrcella takes things apart and Uncle Jaime watches and she feels like they're almost a real family. Even if the parts don’t all fit together quite right.

**Author's Note:**

> Someone asked about Myrcella's tinkering in a comment and it sparked this fic! Just a little fun on how her uncles react to her habit.


End file.
